Places and travel

Some photos from the ‘Illuminated Abbey’ event at Whitby Abbey and ‘Fountains by Floodlight’ event at Fountains Abbey. I’ve been to Fountains by Floodlight before and they had their wandering ‘monk’ back again, posing inscrutably in the ruins (whilst always giving a friendly smile to the odd worried child!) – it did bring back memories of last year’s favourite moment when a small boy asked him which Jedi knight he was! Whitby had wandering bodysnatchers and Dracula characters (believe me, it was too cold to be wandering round in a habit!), and projected bats and cobwebs on the ruins, which I would have happily lived without, as the ruins are imposing and mysterious enough in their clifftop position with the clouds drifting over the moon. The ruins were floodlit in ever-changing shades of crimson, gold, violet, aqua, midnight blue, emerald and magenta, though the ducks on the tarn near the abbey seemed a little less than impressed by the colour display!

There was some beautiful light at Brimham Rocks last week – really beautiful golden lighting through the trees and on the rocks, raking across the landscape and picking out the texture and shapes in the rocks.

Every year the North Yorks Moors Railway hosts a ‘Railway in Wartime’ event at its stations. Grosmont had a Battle of Britain Mk2 Spitfire in the carpark and dancing on the platform; Goathland was protected by the Home Guard; Levisham became ‘Le Visham’ a French railway station occupied by German Wehrmacht and Feldgendarmarie, with radar and anti-aircraft battery next to the station, and Pickering hosted visits by Churchill, wartime vehicles etc, and had a number of dodgy characters selling stockings (and some rather dubious silk garments!) from suitcases on the main street. An amazing number of people dress up and join in, and the challenge for photographers is that there is just too much to photograph!

In September I visited a couple of the beautiful gardens we have in Yorkshire – Newby Hall Gardens and Parceval Hall Gardens. There were so many beautiful subjects to photograph – some incredibly colourful autumn flowers and lots of insects – Peacock, Comma and Red admiral butterflies and dragonflies. Hard to know where to point my camera, but these are my efforts to capture the colour.

Some photos from the Highlands in some rather interesting weather! The photos of the bullfinches in the snow are images I visualized years ago, but was delighted to have the opportunity to make the shots I’d wanted on this holiday.

I was delighted to win the ‘Best image taken at the Yorkshire Arboretum’ in the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Photo competition with the above image of a backlit Acer, taken at the Yorkshire Arboretum last October. I received a year’s membership of the arboretum, which is a wonderful prize. The Arboretum is an area of parkland, lakes and ponds covering 120 acres, situated next to Castle Howard. There are so many photo opportunities around the calendar with spring and summer wildflower meadows, spring blossom, rhododendrons and azaleas, and trees from around the world, possibly at their most beautiful in Autumn. There’s also a fair amount of wildlife to be found in the arboretum, so I’ve been very much enjoying my membership, and some of my many recent photos are displayed below.

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